> I tend to say that the second step of climbing a ladder should probably not count as a new interaction.

That might make sense when you view it through this specific lens, but that design decision allowed them to save character positions on ladders and make 'getting on' and 'getting off' be separate 'things' - just off the top of my head.

The '2 interactions' method actually makes the most sense in the context of their game engine - it's the same way getting 'on' or 'off' a chair works.

Their fix of just allowing interactions is probably the most correct option. That is essentially toggling a setting, as opposed to re-engineering how ladder mechanics work.

Games are complicated.